Iraqi unions consider penalties against U.S. over Jerusalem move

U.S. President Donald Trump signs a memo after announcing the transfer of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi trade unions are considering penal measures against the United States in response to the U.S. Administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Shafaw News quoted the head of the General Federation of Iraqi Trade Unions, Sattar Danbous Barrak, saying Thursday that the organization has decided to “take penal measures” to counter President Donald Trump’s decision on Jerusalem, which he signed last month.

According to Barrak, “the measures include abstention from downloading cargo from U.S. ships, and an invitation to cancel contracts with U.S. companies in Iraq, replacing them by others with friendly countries”.

Barrak’s statements came during a meeting with Palestinian ambassador to Iraq, Ahmed Aql, at the embassy.

President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and to plan for relocating the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to there, was met with an Arab and a wide-scale international rejection as a violation of U.N. resolutions on the city.

While Palestinians claim eastern Jerusalem as their capital, and urge Israel to withdraw behind the territories it occupied in 1967, Israelis insist on the city as the unified capital of the Jewish state.